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Inside church of San Filippo
The paintings inside the beautiful church of San Filippo (1775) at San Candido It is a travelling day today from Portogruaro to Braies in the Dolomites.
A change of plans. Piero will drive us to Braies and Diego will come north by train tomorrow to Cortina. I feel sorry for Piero as his English is slightly worse than our Italiano so it made for a trip of silences interspersed with items that we did know or could indicate. Language can be a problem when you cannot string the words you know together.
We left Portogruaro at 28 degrees (another hot day) and arrived to 8 degrees at Hotel Hohe at Prato Piazza in the Braies region in North Italy close to the Austrian border. We felt silly arriving in sandels when it was so cold and raining.
Along the journey we stopped at a number of places only marred by the cloud or rain. Cortina d’Ampezzo was only half clear but we could get an indication of the high perpendicular mountains all around. There was no point in getting a gondola unless the mountains were clear so wait until tomorrow so take another look. Cortina is set in a broad basin with a distinctively Austro/German feel to it – chalets and the German language
A gold sample in the San Candido Museum
The gold examples in the San Candido Museum were spectacular - nuggets and intricate crystal patterns in this area.
From there over the Passo Tre Croci to Misurina where there is a lovely lake – on a nice day. We took a side trip from here to Lake Antorno where we had lunch but didn’t stay since by now it was really raining. On a nice sunny day the scenery would be lovely.
We continued on to Dobbiaco on the highway to Austria to a small town called San Candido. This a lovely town and well worth the visit. There is an old Roman Church which is quite different and sombre inside but surrounded by a very picturesque cemetery – many flowers and intricate wrought iron crosses for each gravesite. In front of this church is another totally different Baroque style church. All curves and beautifully painted inside and out; especially the inside paintings. It also has dome shaped turrets rather than a towering building.
Lindsay had a hot chocolate which was so thick you could stand a spoon in it!
In the town is the Museum of the Dolomites and well worth the visit. It seemed to be about Mythology but on entering it was a cleverly done combination of mythology, natural history and local history. The displays had some of the most impressive minerals I’ve ever seen. These were all collected from the Dolomites and I was particularly impressed with the gold samples – large crystal intricate gold and nuggets on rock. It makes gathering a few grains here and there at home seem of no consequence – but I guess it’s all about the hunt.
Finally the last leg of the journey was towards the west turning off just beyond Villabassa and into the Braies area directly towards the high alps. We drove from 1157m up to 1993! It was steep and windy and no doubt totally spectacular on a clear day. It continued to rain.
The Hotel Hohle is a lovely upmarket wellness hotel for those who can afford it – like us for a few days! It has everything – a lovely lounge area, dining, bar, snack and hot drink area for afternoon, sauna, spa and massage area, and best of all, a heated indoor swimming pool which we immediately made use of. It is lovely. The lights change colour as you swim , it has powerful jets, a heated floor, loungers, showers etc and a magnificent view (when you can see it).
It is good to be cooler again. You can always add clothes but cannot take anymore off when too hot. And it has been too hot for these Kiwis. Perhaps we will acclimatize over the next few weeks. I hope so or we are going to spend a long time being uncomfortable.
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